


in so many words

by Wallyallens



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: A Series of Moments, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, narrative coherence? I don't know her, prompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-18
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-11-15 10:50:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11229405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wallyallens/pseuds/Wallyallens
Summary: They don't say 'I love you' in so many words, but the emotion behind the words is clear as day to see. Prompt on tumblr: 'the (other) ways they say I love you'.





	in so many words

**Author's Note:**

> prompted with a lovely message from @untillambsbecomelionss on tumblr! thank you!

Whenever she calls, Robbie shows up to help. It’s a small thing that she can rely on and Daisy is grateful for it. Especially when there’s a group of Watchdogs who have her cornered in a warehouse, the door creaking under their weight as they attempt to break it down, Daisy standing opposite the door and using the force of her quakes to keep it closed. There was sweat clinging to her forehead from the effort after an hour of waiting for back up. It arrives with the dull thump and thud of flesh on flesh outside, followed by a firm three knocks on the door.

Assuming that nobody trying to kill her would bother to knock, Daisy opens the door.

It is Robbie. There is still smoke in his gaze as the edges of charred skin fade to his usual scattered freckles, but he shrugs when her gaze finds him, almost smiling as he replies modestly.

“Sorry I’m late.”

“I’d say you’re right on time. I don’t know how much longer I’d have lasted,” she replies, nodding to him with gratitude. “Thanks for coming, Robbie.”

After the prolonged period of using her powers to bar the door, she was exhausted, with leaden bones weighing her down. With a final grunt, she ungracefully flopped to the floor, breathing a sigh of relief at the coolness of the metal wall against her back, just glad to be off her feet. Daisy closed her eyes, trying to catch her breath.

“Are you gonna be okay?”

To her surprise, Robbie’s voice is closer, and there is worry laced into the low cadence of his words. She opens her eyes to see him standing closer now, brow furrowed, dark eyes passing over her quickly. Robbie’s expression was drawn together with the same concern she detected in his tone, and it made her feel strangely warm, the aches fading away.

“I’ll be fine,” she reassured him, a smile playing on her lips. “Didn’t know you cared, Reyes.”

“Can’t let you go dying on me, SHIELD would have my head. Don’t need that kind of trouble.”

The words suggest a lack of care, but Robbie’s eyebrow tilts up as he says it, walking over to the wall before sliding down it beside her. He’s joking, rolling his shoulders until his touch hers in a casual jab, and Daisy huffs a laugh through her teeth despite herself.

“Of course,” she nods, as if she understands completely. “We wouldn’t want any trouble.”

Robbie agrees with a sarcastic shake of his head. “Us? Never.”

Their _lives_ are trouble, plain and simple. When Robbie laughs, it’s worth it. Daisy relaxes beside him, face wide with a smile, and feels her chest loosen up, the tiredness creeping away from her. At a glance, he looks better than he had two months ago when he showed up in the SHIELD basement. There are tan lines at his wrists and the rawness from the other dimension had receded, leaving him looking lighter somehow, like a weight was gone. Robbie wouldn’t have laughed like this a month ago. It was good to hear.

The roar of jet engines outside disturbs Daisy’s thoughts, rattling against the metal and kicking up a storm of dust that flurries through the open door. She jerked her head towards it.

“Looks like my ride’s here. Are you alright getting home?”

“I got the Charger and the open road,” Robbie tells her contently. The worry is gone, the creases smoothed out, and it is hard to look away from him when his eyes are so alive. “I’ll be just fine. You gotta start looking after yourself, though, Johnson.”

“It’s not like I do it on purpose!” she laughs, holding up her hands. “Those Watchdogs attacked _me_. Of course I fought back. Who wouldn’t?”

Robbie’s head touched the back of the wall when he leant back, “You wouldn’t be you if you weren’t in trouble every time I see you.”

Daisy snorted. “I resent the implication.”

“But you don’t deny it.” Cocky grin on his face, Robbie stood slowly and offered her a hand. He drew Daisy up to her feet, placing a hand on her shoulder to steady her as he did. When Daisy looked up to find his face an inch away from her own, she looked down before he could see the redness that flared up in her cheeks. By the time she thought it was under control, they were walking outside.

Although she could see the Quinjet waiting, Daisy pauses and turned towards Robbie. His eyes were already on her. Feeling her blush rise again, she nods to him.

**“Drive safe.”**

Robbie grins and salutes in response. Turning on his heel, they parted ways as he walked towards the Charger, broad shoulders making a sharp silhouette against the sun, and Daisy watched him go. She knew that it could be a while before she saw Robbie again, and the thought left her feeling oddly hollow, raising a hand as Robbie fired up the engine and pulled away. With the sunlight glinting in her eyes, she couldn’t tell if he could see her in the rear-view.

*

When his doorbell rung at five past midnight on a Tuesday night, Robbie opened the door with his chain wrapped around his knuckles, cautiously gathering himself before turning the handle. With his life, nothing good came knocking after dark. Seeing Daisy standing on the other side, uniform replaced by a red jumper and sneakers, he almost dropped the chain in shock. It seemed that his luck was changing.

“Daisy?”

She holds up her hands, “I promise I’m not a robot.”

“I never – I didn’t think you were, I just – what are you doing here?”

Robbie wasn’t sure why he fumbled his words so badly, or why his mind was firing blanks. All he could seem to do was blink rapidly and half-slump against the door frame, sure she would vanish between his eyes closing and opening. Robbie saw stars, and Daisy was still there, shrugging and holding up a battered laptop.

“You said that you only ever see me when there’s trouble. I didn’t want that to be the only time I see you.” Daisy says, stepping closer. “So I brought popcorn and I can download any movie you like.”

“Isn’t that illegal?”

“Hey, I was a hacker once. And I can’t always be on duty.”

Mischief glimmers in her eyes, as she presses her lips together and shrugs, arms dangling at her sides, obviously waiting for an answer. Robbie held her gaze for as long as he could, still dazed and yet already fighting a smile. Eventually, he stepped to one side, and Daisy walked into his house. Robbie followed her to the sofa, taking his usual seat and gesturing for her to do the same.

As she sat down and began to set up, he noticed that under the lights, her eyes were marked by dark circles and red-rimmed. Daisy acted fine, and for once didn’t seem to be bruised anywhere, but as she absent mindedly rubbed her eyes as the laptop booted up, he couldn’t help but bite his lip in concern.

**“When was the last time you slept?’**

Daisy starts at the question, but brushes it off a second later with a forced laugh.

“Is that a nice way of saying that I look like shit?”

“Nah, just tired. And that isn’t an answer.”

“I sleep,” she argues. Fingers flying over keys, Daisy used it as an excuse not to look him in the eye, Robbie could tell. “Just been busy the last few days. I just got back from a mission in Peru, it’s probably just jet-lag.”

Reading that she didn’t want to talk about it, Robbie just hums in reply. Opening credits began on the screen, so he asks instead: “What’s this?”

“The new _Disney_ movie. It came out while you were in Hell’s Hot Tub.”

Chuckling at the name for the other dimension, Robbie shook his head and settled back into the couch cushions. Daisy put the laptop on the coffee table and sat beside him, tucking her legs up to her chest, a gap between them. He felt the distance, although neither of them commented on it.

Naturally, twenty minutes into the film Robbie felt a deadweight fall onto his shoulder, and twisted his head to see Daisy, eyes closed and snoring softly. His shoulders shook with silent laughter that thankfully didn’t wake her. At least she was getting some sleep, he thought, considering just switching off the movie but finding himself too engaged to do so; sitting as still as possible so he didn’t wake her, Robbie rolls his eyes at Daisy, who never knew when to stop.

Robbie watched the end of the film alone, but eventually fell asleep right there, with the warmth of Daisy against his shoulder, head falling back as the credits played.

*

SHIELD had re-established itself as a worldwide first responder, going above and beyond governments to help any and everyone in times of disaster, natural or otherwise. It had been something Daisy had argued for. The way she saw it – if Inhumans and vigilante’s everywhere were being forced to sign the Sokovia accords, then they should be employed worldwide, not just in America at the government’s beck and call.

There had been a Tsunami on the coast of Japan and SHIELD had been one of the first agencies on the scene. She pulled people out of rubble and gave out supplies to families made homeless by the disaster, working for almost twenty hours before she even thought to stop; it must have been late in the afternoon, the sun overhead just beginning to wane and set when she pauses for a moment to gather herself.

Looking around, she saw destruction. Hot tears pricked at her eyes, threatening to spill over at the things she saw, her heart breaking for everyone they had not been able to save, and those hurt or grieving now. Daisy understood how it felt to have your heart ripped out. Seeing pain brought back the memories, overflowing with empathy, and she had to press her hand firmly to her lips to hold them at bay; she would not cry here. Her tears helped no one.

A dark shape caught her eye amid the chaos, and her gaze focuses in on it. Robbie was kneeling near a group of children who could not find their parents, handing out food and telling them stories. She could see his hands moving as he spoke, eyebrows up and expressive, open in a way that he did not usually show. Robbie was reserved, mysterious even – but seeing him with those children, face wide with a smile and animatedly telling a story, Daisy could see Robbie the big brother; Robbie the man, not the Rider.

Where before tears had been a moment away from overwhelming her, now a smile tugged at the edge of her lips. Making her way towards him, Daisy picked her way through the rubble, heading towards the one bright spot in all the darkness – Robbie notices her approaching, lifting a hand and finishing his story, ruffling one of the kid’s hair before standing to talk to her.

**“You’re good with them,”** Daisy said softly in way of greeting, nodding her head towards the children, now eating their food behind Robbie’s back. His ears turned red as he glanced back towards them, giving her a modest look when he turned back, but there was pride in his expression, too.

“Yeah,” he shrugged, shuffling, eyes dropping to his feet. “I just think – if it were Gabe, I’d hope somebody would help him.”

Daisy reached out, putting a hand on his arm; Robbie stilled under her touch. “You _are_ helping them. You, Robbie Reyes. It’s . . . it’s good to do this as just us, isn’t it? Not _Quake_ or the Rider, just-”

“Yeah,” Robbie finished when she struggled, nodding quickly. “Yeah, it is.”

They stood amid smoke and ruin, and for just a moment, they stood as tall as giants.

*****

Daisy tries to visit the Reyes’ at least once a month. Officially, it is to check on the Ghostrider as a SHIELD asset, but mostly she goes for a break from the 24/7 chaos of SHIELD. Seeing Robbie is like seeing a port in a storm – it calms her amid rough seas, gives her just an afternoon of quietness, an hour of peace away from it all. Most times, they laugh. She goes with a movie or they meet for coffee and Daisy finds that she looks forward to those visits, more than she should.

“What’s shaking?”

Robbie laughs at rolls his eyes at her version of hello, opening his door wider to let her in. “You really need a new catchphrase.”

Daisy laughs and heads straight to the kitchen table, taking her usual seat and glancing around – the house is tidier than usual, but Gabe has work piled up all around the table; she squints at math formula and scribbled science notes briefly before looking away. She worries about them, living alone with just Robbie’s income to support them. Daisy has tried to get him on the SHIELD pay-roll more than once, but Robbie simply refuses to be an agent – she always checks around, though, and would pay off their entire house in a heartbeat if she thought they really needed her help.

“Stop that, we’re fine,” Robbie chided, standing at the counter. He makes the cheapest insta-coffee and loads hers up with sugar. “I told you, I don’t need charity. We’ll get by.”

“But if you ever needed it-”

“I’d ask,” he says. “Really. I don’t want to lose this house, trust me, but I’ll stay independent for as long as I can. I don’t trust SHIELD.”

“But you work with us all the time!”

“No,” he shakes his head, turning to her. “I work with _you_. There’s a difference.”

_I trust you_ is hidden in the words somewhere, audible to both of them. Daisy’s cheeks burn red as she ducks her head, taking a huge gulp of the coffee to distract from her expression; she tells hersef that the warmth that spreads through her is from the boiling drink and not his words. Robbie, not used to being so emotionally honest, sits across from her and spins his cup idly in his hands. Sunlight streams in through the open window. The house is quiet aside from the quiet sounds of their drinking and fidgeting.

Eventually, Robbie breaks it. “Listen, while we’re being honest . . . **I want you to have this. It’s a key to the house, in case you ever need somewhere to run.”**

He slides something glinting silver towards her, the plastic tablecloth creaking slightly where his hand moves. Dropping it, Robbie quickly withdraws his hand, leaving Daisy trying to swallow the lump in her throat, staring down at the simple object with awe. Her throat feels like sawdust. With effort, she lifts it with fingers painted with black nail polish, chipped at the edges, and holds the key to her chest like it is precious.

“I . . . I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say nothin’. Just . . . you got my back, right?” Robbie is uncomfortable with emotion, his eyes darting to and from her, not daring to linger, but pauses for just a second. “I got yours, too. You always got someplace to go.”

Daisy tucked the key into the pocket of her jeans. Not trusting herself to speak, she simply nodded her thanks at him. It’s a strange thing, having somebody that she trusts so much. Other times, she would have taken the key with no intention to use it – but with Robbie? Daisy would keep the key safe.

He was a lifeline, and one she was starting to rely on more and more.

*

Daisy rides with her feet on the dash and all the windows open, one hand out of the window and tracing shapes in the air as it flies past. She also has a habit of reaching over to turn over any songs that she doesn’t like. Robbie grits his teeth and bares it. He has pushed her feet off four times so far before giving in, allowing her to fiddle with the radio and basically rub against everything he would never let another passenger do like sand on his skin.

After all, when she relaxes just enough, she sings along to the radio and grins, which is almost worth it.

**“Would you just pick a station?”**

When she reaches over to change the station for about the fortieth time, he snaps. Despite his words there is a disbelieving smile aching to grow on his face, as he asks from incredulity that she’s still changing it rather than genuine annoyance. He’s never known a person be so picky about songs before.

Daisy looks him dead in the eye and changes the channel.

“It’s not my fault you still listen to the radio. I mean, who the hell does that anymore? It’s 2017! Get a phone jack and aux cord.”

Robbie gave his dash a sympathetic pat as he shot her a dirty look, “Don’t listen to her, baby. You don’t put a phone jack in a car like this, Johnson. It’d ruin it.”

“Okay then, keep being stuck listening to redneck rock every time you leave the city.”

Pushing her dark sunglasses further up her nose, wrinkled with disgust at the latest song crinkling through the speakers, Daisy turned her head away, looking back out the window. Cornfields taller than either of them framed the road, and above them, a sky of the bluest blue. It felt hotter than hell in the Charger, with its old and mostly-useless air conditioning, leaving Robbie distinctly aware of his shirt clinging to him with sweat, simply chuckling at her outrage and returning his attention to the road.

“I have tapes in the door, if you’d prefer.”

There’s a rattling that follows, as Daisy roots through his literal cassette tapes shoved into the door, muttering to herself “twenty- _fucking_ -seventeen” as she does. Robbie just laughs, and the road flies by.

*

Robbie is selfless in a quiet way.

He looks after his brother, looks after his friends and his neighbourhood, looks after _her_ – but he never asks for anything for himself. He dreams of a future for his brother whilst never thinking that he was one, too. He wears shoes worn down almost to the soles, and never complains about the cold. Robbie never thinks to show that same care to himself that he shows to others, and Daisy notices.

When she shows up unexpectedly at his house and finds him littered with bullets, he immediately gives her a mournful look. “-Don’t make a fuss. I’ll be fine, I’m healing-”

“You’re _bleeding_!” she hisses, helping him back inside and locking the doors behind them, shooting a furtive look out into the street to check none of the neighbours had noticed his injuries. Robbie was bleeding through his thin t-shirt, a dark stain spreading around his gut. Supporting him back to the couch, Daisy helps him to sit, pulling up his shirt to reveal thick bandages, but still he was leaking through them. Biting her lip sharply, she glances up at him, “What happened?”

“Eh, the usual,” Robbie waves a hand, trying to pull down his shirt again, but she refuses to be budged. “I was trying to stop a weapons shipment and the bastards got lucky. Please, I’ll be – Jesus, don’t _poke_ me, what the fuck who _does_ that – I’ll heal! I always do, just – its okay.”

Daisy was angry, although she couldn’t put her finger on why. Seeing him hurt . . . it was like being wounded herself, her guts writhing and churning at the spots on blood on the dirty bandages. Closing her eyes for a second, she forced herself to look up at him calmly, but she could hear the erratic edge in her own voice.

“This isn’t okay! Robbie, just because you heal doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful!”

“And what would you have done, huh? Not gone? _Bullshit_. You’d have done the same thing and you know it.”

All flame, Robbie snarked back, giving her a dry, knowing look. Even though his eyes were hazy with pain, his tongue was still sharp, and his eyebrows jumped up, challenging her to disagree – he could be so _irritating_ when he wanted to be. Daisy’s mouth fell open as she leaned back on her heels, but no argument came out – but she wasn’t going to admit that he was right. No way.

Like a bucket of water over her head, a new spot of blood appearing on his bandages sobered her. It didn’t matter who was right, or who would have done what – Robbie was hurt, and it made her feel sick. Daisy lifted her gaze to his, replying quite simply.

“I know you carry this thing around with you, and you think you don’t deserve to be saved – I get it, I feel it too. But you’re not a bad person, Robbie.” Daisy finished softly, **“You should look after yourself, too.”**

For a moment, Robbie didn’t reply. Mouth slightly agape, moving with words that never made it past his lips, he just stared back at her steadily. Eventually, his tongue darted through his dry lips and wet them, and he swallowed hard, dropping his gaze.

“I could say the same to you.”

Daisy sighs and nods in agreement, “How about we both try to do better, but for now let me clean you up – your bandaging is shit, Reyes.”

Tension snapping and fading in the room around them, Robbie chuckles. “It seems like a waste of bandages. This will be gone by tomorrow.”

“It’s not a waste,” she replies simply. “Not if it will help you. Are you gonna let me do it or not?”

With a put-on sigh and dramatic roll of his eyes, Robbie obediently lifts his shirt, and Daisy set to work. She pulled away the shoddy excuse for a bandage he had wrapped around his middle, revealing smooth abs that were unfortunately marred with bullet holes; red gashes slicing through his torso, inflamed and hot to the touch. A normal man would have been dead ten times over. The thought chilled her as she grabbed a bowl of water and began to clean out the wounds.

By the time she was done, definitely not distracted by his muscles rippling underneath his skin every time he winced, Robbie had a clean and slightly-better applied bandage over his injuries. There was a light sweat on his forehead as he lay back on the couch, but he gave her a weak smile all the same.

“Thanks.”

It wasn’t much, but she smiles back anyways. “You should get some sleep. I’ll check on you tomorrow.”

“You don’t have to-”

“I’ll check on you tomorrow,” Daisy repeats firmly. Standing, she threw away the bloody bandages and grabbed a blanket from his closet, throwing it over him. Pressing a hand to his shoulder, she headed for the door. “Goodnight, Robbie.”

Then, so quietly that she almost missed it –

“Night, Daisy.”

*

It seemed that more often than not, Robbie walked into his house to find Daisy already there.

**“Do you live here now?”**

She was sitting on his couch, Gabe beside her, half-buried in a pile of pizza boxes and playing video games. There’s an incredulous note in his voice as he stops in the doorway, eyes bugging out at the sight of her – one he is getting familiar with. It’s less surprising and more a jolt of pleasure to see Daisy here these days.

Face half-stuffed with food, she gives him a pleading, slightly guilty look. “I brought pizza?”

“I can see that.”

Daisy tried again. “You love me?”

Robbie snorts, but neither confirms nor denies it. Strolling across the room, he collapsed between them on the couch, causing Gabe to shout and Daisy to laugh. It’s a good sound. Blinking at the screen, he frowns.

“What’s this?”

“Oh.” Daisy sends him her most pathetic and guilty look. “I’m not allowed games at headquarters anymore, you see, and I knew Gabe would like it, so I maybe bought you a console – so I could play it! It’s not charity. I just really needed a second player.”

Giving him a butter-wouldn’t-melt smile, she hands over the controller. “Go on, have a go. You know you want to.”

Although his sense of self-preservation told him to object, Robbie took the controller and focused on the screen. There was some sort of fight happening, and all he could think was _there’d be more blood in real life_. Naturally, he beats the boss in under two minutes, as Daisy and his brother whooped and cheered him on.

*

L.A doesn’t even get cold at night. It exists in an alternate reality where the absence of sun doesn’t equal an absence of muggy heat, the humid kind that made it feel like the air was choking you, and Daisy shifts uncomfortably in her leather jacket and tells herself that it was the heat that was pissing her off – definitely not the fact that they were racing to a burning building. The call about the Ghostrider facing down against a gang hadn’t come from Robbie, _oh no_ , it had come from the police. Anger was not an unusual emotion for her, but the prickling in her gut of fear alongside it was strange.

“He’s going to be okay, you know,” Coulson tells her softly. They’re in the back of Lola, heading out almost before the jet touched the ground, as he drives her through the city to get to her friend without complaint. Coulson is in the driver’s seat, hands on the wheel at exactly ten and two, but he does tear his gaze away from the road for a second to check on her. “Robbie can take care of himself.”

“Yeah, but he _doesn’t_ , that’s kinda the point,” she snaps back. Daisy’s irritation is directly tied to the fact that he hadn’t called her for help before putting himself in danger, again, and her hands clench into fists at her sides. “Idiot should have called me! Stupid reckless _men_.”

She puts as much venom into the last word as possible. Daisy was so glad that she was bisexual. She wished that she didn’t have to deal with the needless noble-bullshit self-sacrificing complexes of literally every man she got close to, but she was racing towards him anyway. Whether she’d kill or kiss him when she arrived, she genuinely had no clue at this point.

Lola screeched to a halt; before Coulson can even open his mouth to say ‘think before you act’, Daisy was running onto the docks and quaking a bunch of men with machine guns right into the water. There’s a satisfying splash – turning, she saw two more coming for her, fighting fist against fist with them for a few minutes and draining every bit of frustration that she was feeling into those punches. By the time the blood rushing around her ears calms to silence, she is standing with bruised knuckles and encircled by fallen men, breathing heavily.

Fire catches her eye, and she looks up to find the Rider stalking towards her.

Daisy charges right back at him. When they meet in the middle, it’s to the sound of her punching him in the shoulder – not hard, but with frustration, unflinching in the face of his flames.

“ **You’re supposed to call me if you need help!”**

Her voice sounds ragged and tight with emotion, as Daisy stands in front of the Rider and refuses to move, glaring up into the eyeless skull before pushing him again, welled up with anger. “You promised me you’d try to take care of yourself! You promised you’d call, you jerk, not run in there with no back up!”

“Uh, Daisy-” Coulson’s voice cut off her rant. A hand grabs her arm and tries to pull her back – Coulson’s eyes are focused on the Rider, trying to make her come with him as he slowly backs away, “I don’t think Robbie’s in the building right now. And you shouldn’t piss off the Other guy.”

Daisy jerks her arm away, stepping right back to the Rider and pointing an accusatory finger in his chest.

“I don’t give a shit if the Devil’s Asshole here, he’s supposed to call!” Daisy felt tears well up in her eyes, only getting more pissed off because of it. With a noise that was almost a scream in the back of her throat, she fixed the flaming head with a look that left no room for argument. “Give him back to me. _Now_.”

She could practically _hear_ Coulson holding his breath in fear behind her. Undeterred, Daisy stared at the Rider, waiting – with a movement that could have been a nod, the flaming head bowed slightly, and began to smoke. Engulfed for a moment, the flames were extinguished, and Robbie bled back into his own skin with a pained sound, until only charred lines remained on his cheekbones. Even those vanished after a minute. It left Robbie standing there, unblinkingly looking at her, with only the smell of smoke to show that the Rider ever walked in his shoes.

There’s a sorrowful look in his eyes that almost breaks her, especially when he says so softly, “Daisy . . .”

“Why didn’t you call?” She asks, not letting him finish. His fire is out but hers is flaring up, hungry and flicking, wanting to be angry for a while longer. “You should have called me! Did you think I wouldn’t come?”

“No, I-”

“You _promised_ ,” Daisy tells him, feeling something warm slip down her cheek. Maybe that was all her life was: a series of broken promises and dreams that led to her being alone, again. Another accusatory jab falls limp before it even connects, her hand resting on his collarbone and fisting itself in the material instead. “You – you swore you’d try, and then you go and do something like this? I have your back, Robbie. When you run into shit like this, you’re supposed to let me know. You’re – ugh, I just – I was scared for you.”

She’s looking at him, and he’s _alive_ , Robbie is okay and still breathing and looking back at her with dark eyes so mournful that it breaks her, she thinks.

The next thing she knows, her hand is tightening in his jacket and tugging him closer, and her lips are slamming against his, and she is kissing Robbie senseless. Just as she poured her anger into her fists, she let every worry and moment of growing affection spill out through her lips; she wasn’t good with words, not always, but she was good with actions. She hoped this was enough to make him understand that she _couldn’t_ lose him.

When she pulls away, Robbie just keeps staring at her, blinking hazily like waking from a dream.

Before he finds his words, there is an awkward cough from behind them. Daisy wheels around to find Coulson standing there – and _crap_ , she’d forgotten he was here at all – looking at her with a fond sort of exasperation.

“I uh, expect a report on this in the morning, Agent Johnson.”

Robbie’s voice asks in her ear, “Does he mean-”

“The _fight_ ,” she clarifies with a high voice. Not her making out with him in the middle of an active crime scene. “I’ll write a report on the incident when I get back to the base, AC.”

Coulson gives them an odd shuffle-nod, holsters his gun, and leaves with a pained “Goodnight.” Yep, this was the most awkward experience of her adult life, for sure. Daisy knew that by morning, everyone would know that she practically jumped the Ghostrider. With burning cheeks, she watched Coulson jump back in Lola and drive away.

As the red break lights vanished, Robbie began to laugh softly beside her.

“What?” she asks, glancing over at him. “This isn’t funny!”

“It’s kinda funny.”

Robbie looks over at her, softly, and she cannot help it. Daisy begins to laugh along with him, both of them giggling out loud like schoolchildren, shoulders shaking, as the sound of sirens approach. In the darkness, his fingers brush against hers.

*

 

“Come on,” Robbie urges, taking her hand and trying to tug her towards the Charger. She drags her feet, knowing that she needs to get back to SHIELD, but there’s amusement in her eyes as he pulls her closer to the car. Robbie tries again. **“You deserve a night off.”**

“I have paperwork.”

“Pay someone else to do it.”

“What if something happens?”

“You have a phone,” Robbie argues, stepping closer to her face and leaning in, so he is talking close to her mouth without actually kissing her, because he knows that she will cave. “If the world ends, I’m sure it will start ringing.”

“Not funny,” she murmurs, but presses her lips against his own anyway. Daisy gives a sigh, but doesn’t actually look too bothered about sneaking off with him. “Fine. Where would we be hypothetically be going?”

“On a date that doesn’t involve you punching somebody,” he answers, grinning. Robbie has won and knows it, getting into the driver’s seat and rolling down the windows. She slides in beside him a moment later, snorting at his words. “We need to go someplace that isn’t a mission. How about drinks? Dinner? Movies?”

“Boring and predictable,” Daisy says. Robbie bites back a comment that she is being predictable herself when she immediately puts her feet up on the dash, but is silenced when she also puts her hand in his own. _That’s_ new. “We need to do something different – how about the funfair? I heard there’s a travelling one by the pier.”

Robbie bites down a smile, thinking that the two of them and a funfair sounds like either a party or a riot, depending on how much trouble they inevitably manage to find.

He knocks the car in gear and revs off towards the shoreline either way. After all, he never did work out how to say no to her. The smile that settles on her face as she leans into his side could power entire cities.

It goes well for almost the entire evening. They go on the Ferris wheel and Daisy totally uses her powers to knock down pins on one of the games but denies it after, handing him a goldfish with an impish grin. He doesn’t believe her. She _definitely_ cheated.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” he asks, looking in the fishbowl. The animal inside is lazily floating around, and he swears it gives him the stink-eye for asking.

“Look after him,” she replies. “Or her. I’m not gendering the fish.”

“Of course,” Robbie answers dryly, “But what do you call a genderless fish?”

Daisy considers it for a moment. “Bobbie.”

There’s something slightly sad in her smile, vaguely nostalgic as her eyes glaze over, so Robbie decides to just accept it and move now. He had a fish now, apparently. With a sigh, he replies, “Fine, whatever. But you’re not making me a single dad. Bobbie can spend three nights a week at SHIELD with you.”

When Daisy laughs out loud at that, the sadness is chased out of her face. She loops her arm through his and leans her head against his shoulder a little, and Robbie veers them towards the mirror maze up ahead. Things fall apart as soon as they step inside.

The long and short of the story is that Daisy ends up Quaking the mirror maze to pieces and they arrest a weird creepy clown who was totally killing visitors, and Robbie swears blind that he is never stepping foot in a circus again. It is when they’re waiting for SHIELD to show up, sitting on the steps of the shattered maze and surrounded by shards creating multiple copies of their own reflection that Daisy taps their knees together, winding her hand in his and joking weakly.

“We’re not a normal couple, are we?”

Although she laughs when she says it, looking around at the destruction with a sliced cut on her cheek from the collapse of the maze, there is a wistful edge to her tone. It catches his attention. Leaning over, Robbie used the hand not holding hers to tuck her hair behind her ear gently, thumb resting on her cheek and stroking softly. He shook his head.

“No,” Robbie confirmed simply, before the corner of his lip tugged up. “But that would be boring and predictable. I much prefer being _us_.”

At hearing her own words echoed back at her, Daisy laughed again, moving forward with the movement until her head touched his. She nods; Robbie feels it although his eyes flickers shut the moment her skin touches his. It’s a quiet moment, but it stays with him for years.

*

“I’m not moving. Not ever. I’m staying here forever.”

Daisy announces her intention to never leave the bed on a Monday morning, still half-asleep and warm and meaning it with all of her heart. Lying there with Robbie as the sunlight streams in through the window, warming her skin where it touches, there is no rush or chaos, no noise, no trouble – it’s perfect. She’d live in that embrace forever if she could.

When Robbie laughs at her words, her head bobs as his chest rises and falls with his laugher, and the arm around her waist tightens. “That so?”

She hums. “Yep. And since you’re like, sixty percent of what is making this so amazing; you’re not allowed to leave either.”

“Only sixty percent?”

**“You’re comfy,”** she tells him seriously, pressing sleepy lips into his collarbone as she speaks. “I’d be willing to extend it to eighty percent.”

“I’ll take it,” Robbie chuckles back. Even as he lies there with her and jokes about it, though, his eyes flick to the clock on the bedside table. The numbers in red tell him that he has to be at work in half an hour. He should have been leaving the house by now to get there in time, but he hesitates a few minutes longer, dragging his fingers through her hair and wishing that her words were true and they could just stay there. But he has work, and SHIELD will be calling her soon, so he sighs and sits slowly. “I gotta go, Dais.”

Daisy drags an arm around his stomach and tries to pull him back to bed. “Why?”

“Work. You know, the thing that keeps the roof over my extremely comfy bed.”

“It’s not comfy without you in it,” she replies, sitting up beside him. There’s sleep in her eyes that he wipes away, brushing his lips against her temple before he moves to stand. Dasiy watches him dress with a resigned expression, “You know, if you came and worked for SHIELD you wouldn’t have to go to work right now. You could stay in bed.”

“Nice try,” he tells her, cracking a grin. It was a game two could play at. “And we could wake up like this every day if you just moved in. You could stay, if you want.”

He says it casually, but it is something that Robbie has been thinking about since they started dating. Mostly, the words are just words, and he knows she loves SHIELD too much to ever leave it – so he freezes when she replies.

“Okay.”

Robbie turned slowly, seeing her still wrapped up in the covers, blinking at him from the bed. “Okay?”

“I’ll stay. I can be an agent and not live at the base, you know.” Catching his surprise, Daisy stood, walking over to place her arms around his neck, the blanket over her shoulders like a cape. She’s everything he can see, and it takes his breath away. Daisy smiles, leaning into him, “You’re right. If I woke up here with you every day, well, I could live with that.”

She’s grinning, and he kisses her to wipe the smile off her face, and because he can’t quite find the words to say. They don’t say ‘I love you’, not in so many words, but the strength of emotion behind them was there as clear as the rising sun, and that’s okay.

He doesn’t need words. He has _her_.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys liked this! thanks for the prompts I've received! I've got another prompt to fill for quakerider which I promise to get around to, and I now how two AU's planned for them too - an 'Anastasia' AU and a role reversal 'Once' AU, which I'm actually really looking forward to writing. It probably won't be right away, however, as all that happens when I write for one pairing all the time is I repeat myself /so much/. but do let me know which one takes your fancy if you decide to drop a comment! and I am as always available @jeffersonjaxson on tumblr.


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